13 Responses to this entry

Hmm… Steyn will have to push it a bit further than this to get derbed. (I like the idea of derb as a verb… we could call the recent Niall Ferguson kerfuffle a near-derbing) Steyn has been a broken record with his Eurabia meme for a decade now- one that doesn’t hold up to much demographic scrutiny and is based more on whatever scary, selective anecdotes he can come up with than anything that’s really reflective of a continent of half a billion people- I take him about as seriously on geopolitics as I take Gordon Chang- which is to say, not very, and if he’s right, it’s only because he’s a stopped clock that will inevitably gain some corroboration for his theory just by waiting long enough. He’s been debunked from the (conventional) right and left- I agree with Spengler’s take that while Europe may be screwed, so is Islam; what were seeing are it’s death throes, not a prelude to triumph.

Agreed. Save “Derb” for HBD and IQ-related statements. This kind of rhetoric is broadcasted through major, mainstream news outlets in Europe and N. America literally every day. At this point, it’s part of the mundane noise that characterizes most political media.

In the US, at least, talk radio, which commands a considerable audience, is full of individuals who make a living on precisely this kind of doom preaching- whether the more famous, visible commentators like Limbaugh, or the somewhat more obscure Mark Levin. Fox News is still the most watched network in the country, and its prime time programming is full of messages about Muslim and immigrant takeovers. State and lower-level politicians use statements like these in their campaigns all the time. Presidential candidates have made such comments during both of the last two elections. There’s a very sharp distinction between this kind of noise and the IQ/HBD statements/scandals.

Rush Limbaugh and the like aren’t exactly a part of the American MSM establishment, and when they do bring this topic up, they typically talk about “Muslim takeovers” in Europe, not America. The only time “Muslim takeover” rhetoric got popular was when some Muslims tried to build a mosque right across the street from the Twin Towers site. Otherwise, American talk radio rarely brings up Muslims. We have a Mexican “takeover” to worry about. (And I don’t watch a lot of Fox News, but when I do, the discussions aren’t about “Eurabia” so much as they are about the general danger of radicalization. And even Sean Hannity always goes out of his way to say “It’s only 1% of Muslims who are a threat” etc. etc.)

@Nicholas MacDonald

Steyn has been a broken record with his Eurabia meme for a decade now- one that doesn’t hold up to much demographic scrutiny and is based more on whatever scary, selective anecdotes he can come up with than anything that’s really reflective of a continent of half a billion people- I take him about as seriously on geopolitics as I take Gordon Chang- which is to say, not very, and if he’s right, it’s only because he’s a stopped clock that will inevitably gain some corroboration for his theory just by waiting long enough.

Well, isn’t his entire point about long-range demographic trends? By definition, time will prove him right, if in fact he is right.

And “selective anecdotes” is probably better framed as “geographic contingency.” I’m sure it’s easy to pooh-pooh Steyn’s thesis if you live in rural Norway or Cornwall. If you live in London, you’re probably paying a bit more attention.

What you’re saying about Steyn is precisely what the Left said about Mexican immigration for most of the 20th century. Even today, American Northeast Leftists deride immigration fears—well, sure, for them it’s easy because they live a thousand miles from the Mexican border in rural college towns like Ithaca, New York. I can see how the fears might not hit home for them. But look at the demographics of Tuscon or your average L.A. suburb, and you’ll realize that perhaps there’s something to all this long-range demographic trend nonsense . . . Whether or not you accept it depends in great part on where you look.

Death throes of Islam or the Middle East? America began as the death throes of English tradition and we all know how that’s turned out. Spengler has been harping on demographics for a decade but he usually denies the possibility that European Muslims could ever be culturally distinct from the Arabs. I’ve never been convinced.

‘Spengler’ is almost always highly stimulating, but he’s undeniably evasive on this point. There’s also the fact that, as a writer in fairly mainstream media, he has to do a lot of communication in code.
That said, on the Middle East he’s been predicting the trend with greater accuracy than anyone else.

The problem is that civilization is essentially feminine. Attempts to render it sustainable through institutionalized patriarchy are, themselves, unsustainable as evidenced by recent history.

It is hopeless to get the females up in arms.

Up until it is raped, the feminine mind works like this:

“Foreign males are present. This must mean that my co-national males are unable to challenge the foreign males to natural duel and succeed. Therefore, it is imperative that I obtain the genes that are now not only demonstrating their dominance and permanence, but are likely carrying with them immunity to diseases that are co-evolved with these foreign males.”

When it is raped, the feminine mind works like this:

“None of my co-national males protected me from this. They’re just standing around brooding about it instead of dealing instant death to the rapists. This confirms my belief that the foreign males are dominant and that their genes are essential to the viability of my children.”

Since the patriarchal scaffolding holding up civilization has been dismantled, giving way to sub-Saharan African behavior patterns of serial (if not parallel) polygyny among “independent” females, the only hope for civilization is the introduction of religions like Islam that are not as far along the road to the loss of their patriarchal scaffolding.

According to him, Europe is screwed because of demographics, while the US is healthy because of demographics. He obscures the fact that Europe is still whiter than the US, and that the US’s demographic growth is coming from immigrant non-whites and that the majority of young children and newborns in the US are now non-white.